Michael Totten & Other Viewers Pardon what in the preview of this post appears to be a bunched up post. If this post comes up as such, I'm at a loss of knowing why. Besides the Serbs, other non-Albanians in Kosovo have faced problems from Albanian nationalists. During WW II, Serbia wasn't recognized as a country by the Nazis, like the Nazi acting Ustasha regime in Croatia, which had the Jasenovac concentration camp. This contrasts sharply from what was going on in Serbia at the time. Nedic and Ljotic aren't to be confused with the majority of Serbs who either supported Mihailovic or the Partizans. Debunking the pro-Kosovo Independence Claims http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/52219 The Press and Kosovo http://www.counterpunch.org/averko03042008.html

>>> The Serbs were a large majority in Kosovo prior to WWII, but were ethnically cleansed during that war by Albania with Nazi assistance. ---

You're either a liar or gullible enough to have fallen for Serbian propaganda. Serbs did manege to make the numbers better by expelling Albanians pre-WWII, by confiscating Albanian Lands and sending Albanians to Turkey but still, even after that and bringing 70,000 settlers Serbs were never more than 28%. If some Albanians saw the Italians as liberators it wasn't because they loved the Nazis, it was because Serbs were much worst to them. 1990's made it clear for everyone why: now imagine what they did in th e1920's when cameras weren't around. Yes, the recent settlers were sent packing and Albanians got their land back.

Now, tell us about Serb collaboration with the Nazis: how Belgrade became the first Judenrein city in Europe. Tell us about Zbor, Serbia Volunteer Guard, Kosta Pecanac, Nedic and Draza Mihailovic (who focused more on killing Croats, Muslims and Partizans than fighting the Germans.) Why were the names of Nazi concentration camp prisoners in cyrillic? Could it be because the guards--tens of thousands of them--and executioners were Serbs? How come only 1500 out of 16000 Jews survived? How come Jews and Gypsies were used fill the 100 number to be executed for each German casualty?

As soon as Tito promised that they 1912 injustice would be rectified, Albanians in masse joined the Partisans (just as Albanian in Albania did). When Tito lied, it took them over a year to crush the post war Albanian rebellion.

I will comment on three matters brought up here. First, Albanians as a whole were never "part of the Orthodox world." Albanian Orthodox Christians live in central and southern Albania, not in Kosova or Macedonia or north Albania, which were Catholic before becoming Catholic and Muslim, except for brief periods of Byzantine, Bulgarian, and Serb domination. Second, Kosova has an Albanian majority of 90 percent now for the same reason it had one in 1912 when Serbia invaded; Serbs have not been a major element in Kosova since at least the 17th century, and were a minority before that as shown by contemporary historical and population record. There are still some 200,000 Serbs in Kosova, which everybody who goes there knows, along with members of other minorities. As to the inflated claims about destruction of Serbian religious properties, most Westerners never found out that more than half of the mosques and Sufi structures in Kosova were completely destroyed by the Serbs in 1998-99. Serb structures that came under later attack were mainly "political churches" built since the 1980s to symbolize Slav domination. Such retaliation was abominable but has ended, while Serb threats and aggression against Albanians continue.

I’m a retired USAF Lt Col with about six years in the NATO southern region (1999 – 2005). I’ve seen Kosovo up close from the ground and helicopter on numerous occasions. The only orthodox churches remaining are ringed with excessive amounts of barbed wire and guarded 24/7 by KFOR. When and if KFOR departs, so will all traces of the orthodoxy. The people (K-Serbs and K-Albanians) seem to be decent enough folks. But there is an undercurrent of indoctrinated hatred for one another that trumps all reason. Undisturbed, the malcontent feelings lay dormant somewhere in the soul of every Kosovar citizen. But given the right mixture of incitement (such as in the March 04) those emotions manifest and explode into violence. I was personally present for that one. I could go on and on about the things I’ve seen there and in Bosnia, but it would only be repeating the obvious. There is no forgiveness or forgetting in the Balkans.

Serbs and warmongers!!!

It is true that Serb Orthodox Churches have been damaged by Albanians but then that's only because they are Serb and because of the ugly role that Serb Church has played in the wars. Albanians are the only people in the Balkans where you can come from any of the big three religions and still be Albanian.

>>Ask yourself, or whoever you want why is there a 90% Albanian majority in Kosovo today? The answer is simple they have ethnically cleansed the rest of Serbs and other minorities. Or maybe it was 75% in 1912 when Serbs brutally occupied it (this is missing from Serb history books; they call it 'liberation') and despite all the Albanians sent to Turkey and immigrants to Germany, Switzerland Albanians have more children. Kosovo was ALWAYS the poorest region, why would people with options stay there? People need to eat. Serbs are losing population each year thanks to abortions and Slobo's policies, albanians are not. Now they are 130,000 Serbs in Kosovo so it's impossible for "hundreds of thousands of them" to have been expelled when they were 200,000 to begin with. Many who raped, beat up and looted left with the Serb soldiers, others went north on in their cities, or others have had enough with wars and settled in Serbia. Confiscations of monasteries are impossible: there is an office that has returned 16,000 properties to its claimants, they even ordered the return of Serbian Church land seized by Slobodan. On damaged churches: whatever was done was not done because of religion, it was because of the radical views and spreading of hate from the Serbian Orthodox church agaist Albanians. Serbs also wiped out some 40% of houses, every mosque, every historical building, raped some 20,000 women and killed quite a few men. People were mad to say the least. (Serbs of course deny these things. They never happened, Serbs are good Christians after all)

the Serbian Orthodox Church is Not really a Christian Church, they are a SERBIAN church and that's why they supported Mladic and Karadzic, even Milosvic was too moderate for them. No one is touching Catholic of Protestant Churches in Kosovo, or throwing out Christians, it's Serbian propaganda. The Albanian national hero is a Catholic and so is Mother Teresa. The Serbs have pretty much ensured that virtually all converted Albanians will be Catholics as suppose to Orthodox. After destroying every Croatian Catholic Church in Krajina and Bosnia, committing unspeakable acts of genocide and mass rapes, the Serbs have found Christianity and are asking their "Christian brothers" for help by lying to them. Kinda funny. The Serbian Church spread hate and as soon as the Albanians got autonomy in 1974 they started with the "rape" stories and damages to the churches. When academics looked, ALL crimes were lower in Kosovo than Serbia. Google "Serbian Church Karadzic" and "Michael Sells Serbian Church" and you will see that they have nothing to do with Christianity, they merely want more land for Serbia. They are plenty of Christian missionaries there and in Kosovo they have more rights than in Serbia, where the Serbian Orthodox Church is favored.

As for the Islam on the Balkan, it used to be liberal – until 1992. One can't help but notice that things are changing for the worse. Last year I went back home to Sarajevo, I was running a development project for one year, and I saw the changes on the Balkan. Here is an example: there are more than 100 mosques in Sarajevo, relicts from the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Unimposing historical buildings. The new built mosque has the size of 8000 square meters! It’s impressive. Before, you could hardly ever see covered women in public, now it seems to be very trendy wearing headscarves, even teen girls do it. You can also see women with a head- face cover and wearing black garments covering her down to the feet. Men with long beards. Well, someone wouldn’t consider it alarming because they are still a minority and Islamic clothing is nothing usual within the Arab communities in European major cities. Maybe you are right – but there is one thing which troubles me. 1) there is no Arab community on the Balkan 2) it’s the new state of mind. The Balkan war started 1992, the NATO bombing was in 1994. What happened during the two years? A massacre. The Catholics got support from Germany, the Orthodox from Russia and the Muslims got slapped with sanctions. The European foreign policy failed. That was an utterly devastating sign they sent to the Balkan Muslims. Isolation creates radicalism – it’s not a new perception. Today, the majority of the Balkan Muslims celebrate Ramadan, they fast and they pray – things they haven’t done before 1992. And these - still liberal - Muslims are facing a threat not from Islam per se, but from Wahhabism. By the way, Wahhabism is not only a problem on the Balkan; GB and France are struggling with that as well. And while the European politicians are busy negotiating with Iran, they ignore the religious alacrity in Europe.

Serbs always somehow manage to forget crimes they committed against others,they forget that they themselves started former Yugoslav wars,first in Slovenia,then Croatia,Bosnia and later Kosova.They forget,they first started to burn places of worship in those wars.Serbs talk about Serbs being ethnically cleansed,but forget to mention all those Croats,Albanians,Bosniaks they cleansed,they are the first to use those methods in Europe since Second World War!!!